AC Milan will face Monza away from home this evening and Paulo Fonseca is expected to make three changes to the starting XI. However, as a report claims, Rafael Leao will not be one of those changes.
The ‘Leao case’ has been a hot topic among Milan fans in the last week or so, with Fonseca making it clear that the winger hasn’t done enough this season. Tonight, based on Gazzetta dello Sport’s predicted XI (see photo below), he will start on the bench for the third consecutive game.
Theo Hernandez and Tijjani Reijnders are both back from their suspensions, while Christian Pulisic has recovered from the flu. Instead of replacing Filippo Terracciano on the left, though, it should be noted that the Frenchman will replace Emerson Royal (with the Italian moving to the right).
Noah Okafor is set to get the nod over Leao once again, as mentioned, and Samuel Chukwueze will keep his spot on the right. This means that Pulisic will continue in the No.10 role, where has done well recently.
As for Monza, Daniel Maldini looks set to start against his former side and another Milan product is of course Matteo Pessina.
Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Terracciano, Thiaw, Pavlovic, Theo; Reijnders, Fofana; Chukwueze, Pulisic, Okafor; Morata
Predicted Monza XI (3-4-2-1): Turati; Izzo, Mari, Carboni; Pereira, Bondo, Pessina, Kyriakopoulos; Maldini, Mota; Djuric.
Awesome.
Maybe, Leao is on the bench to be fresh for Portugal, seems far fetched but was it not Spock who said “Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”….
The clubs playing against us must be laughing, not having to deal with Leao, a player, very average player like Olivera had a field day against Milan, could he have done that had Leao been up against him, I doubt it.
Fine Leao is lazy does not track back, so what, traditionally in Italian football, n10’s and n9’s were asked to to track back and reserve their energy so the could utilise it in attack, is that such a bad philosophy, would we have asked Ronaldinho to track back….
Let Leao go out there and express himself, before he goes to another club and shows us what we are missing, for all those Leao haters, it is not Leao’s failure him being on the bench and clearly being Milan’s most talented player (is so much better the Pulsic, I would bet 99/100 defenders would rather face Pulisic then Leao), this is Fonseca’s failure as the coach of Milan!!!
Leão is the most talented player on Milan but he’s not the best player, it’s not the same.
But I agree this insistence on tracking back is weird, I think Fonseca really felt publicly embarrassed after the penalty-gate game, and don’t forget the cooling break situation earlier in the season. He is trying to assert his dominance and taking it out on Leão.
Maybe, Leao is on the bench to be fresh for Portugal, seems far fetched but was it not Spock who said “Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”….
The clubs playing against us must be laughing, not having to deal with Leao, a player, very average player like Olivera had a field day against Milan, could he have done that had Leao been up against him, I doubt it.
Fine Leao is lazy does not track back, so what, traditionally in Italian football, n10’s and n9’s were asked NOT to to track back and reserve their energy so the could utilise it in attack, is that such a bad philosophy, would we have asked Ronaldinho to track back….
Let Leao go out there and express himself, before he goes to another club and shows us what we are missing, for all those Leao haters, it is not Leao’s failure him being on the bench and clearly being Milan’s most talented player (is so much better the Pulsic, I would bet 99/100 defenders would rather face Pulisic then Leao), this is Fonseca’s failure as the coach of Milan!!!
I’d be tempted to play leao on the right, where there’s a more defensively minded full back behind him. And, I’ve always preferred wingers on their natural side, rather than constantly cutting inside. Just get to the byline and pull it back.
Chuk and Theo can do the same on the left.
Probably to logical for modern day football though 🙄
Tomori still in the Purgatory huh? Merit based benchings….